DEGRAAF PACKS A PUNCH FOR CSUSM

In a match last week against Oregon Tech, Cal State San Marcos junior hitter Taylor DeGraaf recorded 29 kills and 22 digs in the Cougars’ four-set victory. That’s a lot of time spent both in the air and near the hardwood floor.

CSUSM coach Andrea Leonard knew DeGraaf had a monster match, but she didn’t realize how big until she looked at the stat sheet. The 29 kills were one shy of DeGraaf’s own school record, and they were the most for a match of four sets or fewer.

“She’s had a few matches when she’s had an enormous kill total,” Leonard said. “And we try to celebrate her as much as possible. She’s so humble about it. ... She doesn’t have any idea — until she gets up in the morning. … She’s getting triple the workout of some players.”

Two years ago she was a somewhat passive, timid freshman on a team playing its inaugural college season. Now she’s a leader on the 20th-ranked NAIA squad in the country and the defending conference champions.

The 5-foot-10 DeGraaf is a former longtime soccer player who didn’t make her seventh-grade team and barely played in eighth grade. But she worked hard enough to make the freshman team at Arcadia High, moved up to varsity the next season and was her league’s MVP her senior year.

She has been an NAIA All-America Honorable Mention her first two seasons at CSUSM and was the Association of Independent Conferences (AII) Player of the Year in 2012.

CSUSM also has the conference’s reigning setter of the year, Alyssa Foster, and seven juniors total from the team that started the program.